Mobile Base Camp - How to Create and Run a Mobile Canvassing (Walk) List

This article walks through
the steps to create a mobile canvassing
list, setup users with
security access to be ‘canvassers’ on their smart phones,
create the canvassing questions to ask, and
how to analyze the data within the
database as voters are canvassed. If you prefer
paper walk lists, or maybe you have a need for
both,this
articleshows how to complete this
task in that fashion.

Note:Trail
Blazer developer Patrick Hanf created the
mobile canvassing app in 2012; he coded using the “html flow” technique
allowing you to access the app on any mobile device, and post the data
collected back to the your database. It does require
you have a steady internet/cell connection to use the
app.

Tip:Use the
Ctrl+F hot key to jump to different
sections of this article (example: “#1”,
“#2” or “Related
Resources”.

Outline

#1– How to Create
your Canvassing Script (Questions) in the
Database

#2– How to Create
Users with Access to Mobile Base Camp (Canvassing on their
Phone)

#3– Constructing a
Search Query to Target Voters for your Canvassing List, Selecting which
Script to Use, and Assigning the List to Users

#4– Running the
Canvassing ‘App’ On your Mobile Device

#5– Searching and
Analyzing the Canvassing Results in your Database

#6– Related
Resources

#1 – How to Create your
Canvassing Script (Questions) in the
Database

You’ll createattributesas the canvassing
questions. Some ideas for questions
are:

-Do you
support my candidate/Not
support/Undecided?

-Do you
want to volunteer?

-Do you
want a yard sign?

-Voter
not home

-Voter
refused to answer

-List
issues that you’re concerned with for this election season
(war/economy/global
warming/etc.)

To begin adding your own
attributes (questions) navigate to the Contacts
(Voters) list under the
Application
Menu.

Navigate the
Attribute tab, right-click on the
Attributes folder and select
‘Insert
Folder’.

Once the folder is created
locate it in your attribute tree, right-click on it, and select
‘Insert item
(attribute)…’.

Tip:You can have
as many sub-folders in your main canvasing
folder if you want to categorize the different types of questions you’ll
be asking. For instance you could have different lawn sign
sizes in one folder, and another one that lists the issues people may be
concerned with this for this election
season.

Create the different
attribute items (questions) and click [OK]
once you’re finished. You can check the box on the
input form to keep it open if you’ll be entering multiple items in one
sitting. My example is
below.

My finished
example is below. You can
always come back to this area in the future and make changes such as
deleting, adding, renaming, and moving attributes within your new
canvassing folder.

Once you’re finished
creating the attribute folders/sub-folders/items, right-click on the
top-most folder for your canvassing script and select
‘Properties’.

Check the box that says
‘This attribute folder contains a script for the mobile
canvassing application’, and click
[Save].

Tip:If you want to
change the order that your questions show
up on the mobile canvassing app you right click-each attribute
(question), select properties, check the box for ‘Display
on web site’ which will activate the
‘Display Sequence’ field.
This can be very useful if you want the canvassers to ask
questions in a certain sequence, here’s an
example:

Img 2 of 2 – Check the Box
to ‘Display on web site’ and Provide a Sequence
ID

You’re now finished
creating the canvassing script, the next section shows how to create
users with access to the mobile canvassing
site.

Important:As of the time
this article was written you’ll need to
close out of the Contacts
(Voters) list, and
reopen it, before you can use your new
canvassing folder as a script (otherwise it won’t display in
your script drop-down in the upcoming
steps).

#2 – How to Create Users
with Access to Mobile Base Camp (Canvassing on their
Phone)

Navigate to the Contacts
(Voters) list.

Search for the contact you
want to setup as a mobile canvasser, typically by Last Name and First
Name. If they aren’t in your database you’ll need to
add them as a new user. In my example I searched for someone
named Sam Oakley who at the time was not in my
database.

Ifthe contact is in
your database click on their name to open their record, otherwise click
the [+ New] button on the
search tool strip. In
my example I needed to add them in as a new contact
record.

Once the record card is
open navigate to the Admin > Logon
area, check the box for ‘Allow Windows-based
Access’, create a User ID
& Password, and then click
[Save].

Navigate to the
Attributes (sub-tab), expand the
Security attribute tree, and check all the
boxes under the Voter folders
‘Activities’ and
‘Data’. My example is
below.

[Save and
Close]their record and you’re
finished. You or the new user can test logging it on the
Mobile Base Camp web app site
(www.trailblz.info/YourDatabaseNameGoesHere/mobi).
In my example it the site was
www.trailblz.info/DemoCampaign_Joel/mobi.

NOTE: This is what it would look like on a smartphone (any smart phone with internet access and a web browser):

This is what it should look
like if the login is successful:

NOTE: This is what it would like on a smartphone (any smart phone with internet access and a web browser):

You’ll return to this area
in a later section of this article when you’re ready to actually run the
mobile walk list. The next section shows how to target a list
of voters to canvass, select the canvassing script to use, and how to
assign it to your user(s).

Tip:This
article will show you some very useful tips and tricks on how to
effectively use Mobile Base Camp on your different devices.Specifically, how to keep the screen on longer, and how
to add shortcuts to your home screen
for quick launching of the web app.

#3 – Constructing a Search
Query to Target Voters for your Canvassing List, Selecting the Script,
and Assigning the List to
Users

First you’ll need to decide
with your campaign team what type of voters
(gender/age/party/ethnicity/etc.) you want to
target as well as where they live
(district/precinct/ward/county/city/zip/etc.).

Navigate to the Contacts
(Voters) list.

Build and run
yoursearch
query. In my example I went after
all voters who lived in a particular (small) precinct, who voted in the
last general election which gave me 16 results. It’s not a bad
idea at all tosave the search as a
favorite queryfor future use (covered in
section #5) so that you don’t need to rebuild it when you’re analyzing
the canvassing results.

Select File
> Communications > Create Canvassing List
…

Create a
name for the canvassing list, choose who to
assign it to, select your script from the drop-down (created
in section #1), as well as any other options you want to
configure. Typically you will set the status to
‘Open’ unless you plan on ‘opening’ up the canvassing list at a future
point.

That completes the steps to
create and assign a canvassing list to your door-knockers.
*If you have access, you can now go view the
canvassing lists you’ve created by following Application
Menu > Canvassing > Canvassing Lists and
clicking
[Search].

The next section shows how
the canvassing list is run on the mobile web app and how to view the
data in real-time within the database.

This will show all of the
canvassing lists assigned to this user. In my
example there was one list assigned to my login, with 16 voters in the
canvassing list.

You can filter the list by
street by typing all or part of the street you are walking
down. In my example I started with ‘Golden Valley
Rd’.

Tap on the address where
you want to canvass the voter(s). In my example it
was 3109 Golden Valley Rd that had 1 voter
living there.

Note:If
there’s more than one voter living at the address you have the option to
canvass each one individually or canvass the entire household at
once. In my example it was just a single voter by the name of
Steven Scarrow.

The 2 screenshots below
show the details of what you can do within a voter’s record card while
you’re using the mobile canvassing app. Check off the boxes
for the questions you’re asking, collect their contact info if you want,
record a log not (comment), and save once you’re
finished.

Img 1 of 2 – Top-Half of an
Example Voter Record in the PinPoint Canvassing
App

Img 2 of 2 – Bottom-Half of
an Example Voter Record in the PinPoint Canvassing
App

NOTE: This is what it would like on a smart phone (any smart phone device with internet access and a browser):

After you save the results
the record in the list will turn slightly yellow and display a checkbox
on the left, my example is
below.

Continue these steps until
all voters have been canvassed. The list will look like the
one below once you’re finished.

You can then return to the
main ‘canvassing lists’ screen to verify all voters have been
canvassed:

The final section of this
article will show how to provide a database user access to the
canvassing list in the backend database and how to
view the results as they’re collected in
real-time.

#5 – Searching and
Analyzing the Canvassing Results in your
Database

Log into the backend
database.

Important:It’s a
requirement that you have the ‘Allow Mass Updates’security
clearancein order to access the
canvassing list:

Under the
Application Menu navigate to the
Canvassing Lists, and click
[Search]. In my example
I had 1 list as shown below.

Click on the ‘Description’
link to open the canvassing list.

Once the list is open you
can do all kinds of things (shown below) such as:

-Delete the list of nobody
has been canvassed

-Change the
script

-Modify who the list is
assigned to

-Change the status
(open/closed)

To view the
canvassing results and get totals navigate
to the Contacts tab, click on the
[Format] drop-down menu, and select
Columns.

Navigate to the
Attributes tab, under the
‘Setting’ column check all of the
attributes that were in your ‘Canvassing Script’ folder, and then click
[OK]. The entire set of
attributes (questions/answers) will be added to the grid as
columns. My example is
below.

Scroll to the far right of
the grid where your canvassing results will now display with totals at
the bottom. My example is
below.

If you want you
cansave the
formatfor future use and assign
it as the default for your (or all users) so that the results always
display when this specific canvassing list is opened in the
future. You can also export the results to a spreadsheet
and/or print them using the buttons on the tool
strip.

The related resources below
will teach a lot more about canvassing, formatting, poll watching, and
other related topics. Give us a call if you have any trouble
getting your canvassing lists setup and running
(1-866-909-8700).